Earthquakes

Stricter regulations were promised after quake two decades ago, but poor construction has played major role in latest disaster.

The Turkish government has periodically held so-called “construction amnesties” since the 1960s, in which construction companies and building owners have had lacking safety certification waived for a fee – a policy that is believed to have generated billions of lira. It is true that we were not expecting an earthquake of this scale, in this area, so it was unforeseen in that respect. “The death toll would have been greatly reduced, as buildings that are designed to withstand earthquakes are less likely to collapse. Proper enforcement of safety codes would have meant a “completely different picture now”, said Hakan Süleyman, a researcher in the department of earthquake engineering at Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University. In the aftermath, authorities promised stricter building regulations and introduced an “earthquake tax” aimed at improving preparedness in a country that sits on two major geological faultlines. On paper, Turkish building safety standards are among the best in the world, and they are regularly updated with specific rules for earthquake-prone regions.

Just six days after the quakes, Turkish officials detained or issued arrest warrants for some 130 people allegedly involved in building construction.

The death toll in Syria's northwestern rebel-held region has reached 2,166, according to the rescue worker group the White Helmets. Backhoes and bulldozers dug pits in the field as trucks and ambulances loaded with black body bags arrived continuously. The woman, a teacher named Meltem, asked for tea as soon as she emerged, according to NTV. The man, Mustafa Sarigul, appeared to be unscathed as he was being transported on a stretcher to an ambulance, 149 hours after the first quakes, private NTV television reported. During a tour of quake-damaged cities Saturday, Erdogan said a disaster of this scope was rare, and again referred to it as the "disaster of the century." An exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took deep breaths as a group of women could be heard crying in joy. Rescuers, including crews from other countries, continued to probe the rubble in hope of finding additional survivors who could yet beat the increasingly long odds. "Good news at the 150th hour. A building contractor was detained by authorities on Friday at Istanbul airport before he could board a flight out of the country. He said the worst-affected area was 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and was home to 13.5 million people in Turkey. A day earlier, Turkey's Justice Ministry announced the planned establishment of "Earthquake Crimes Investigation" bureaus. Turkey's justice minister has vowed to punish anyone responsible, and prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence on materials used in constructions.

Turkish justice officials targeted more than 130 people allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction methods as rescuers extricated more survivors.

In New York City, mourners gathered Saturday at a mosque to remember a family of four from the borough of Queens who were killed while visiting relatives in Turkey. Erdogan acknowledged the initial response was hampered by the damage, with the worst-affected area 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and home to 13.5 million. Turkey's Justice Ministry announced the establishment of Earthquake Crimes Investigation bureaus to identify contractors and others responsible for building works. Rescuers in Antakya, elsewhere in Hatay province, pulled a man in his late 20s or 30s from the rubble, saying he was one of nine trapped in the building. Similar rescues in the province saved two other women, one of them pregnant, according to broadcasters TRT and HaberTurk. "We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. Among those facing scrutiny were two people arrested in Gaziantep province on suspicion of cutting down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. Italian and Turkish rescuers found a 35-year-old man in Antakya who appeared unscathed, private NTV television reported. aid convoy sent to northwestern Syria through government-held areas was postponed due to obstruction from Hay'at Tahrir al Sham, an al-Qaida affiliated group ruling Idlib province, a U.N. I did everything according to the rules." While the quakes were powerful, many in Turkey Two contractors held responsible for the destruction of buildings in Adiyaman were arrested Sunday at Istanbul Airport while trying to leave the country, the private DHA news agency and other media reported.

Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed in the powerful February 6 earthquakes as rescuers found more ...

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. Rescue workers in Kahramanmaras had also made contact with three survivors, believed to be a mother, daughter and baby, in the ruins of a building. A United Nations spokesperson on Sunday said earthquake aid from government-held parts of Syria into opposition-controlled territory has been held up by "approval issues" with one hardline group. Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed in the powerful February 6 earthquakes as rescuers found one more survivor in the rubble on Monday, a 40-year-old woman, in the disaster that killed over 33,000 people, with the UN warning that the final death toll could rise by "double or more". [Syria](https://www.france24.com/en/tag/syria/) as of February 12 following the deadly earthquake and aftershocks in neighbouring Turkey, the UN office for humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on Monday. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).

The death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and northwestern Syria has gone past 29,000 as rescue efforts continue. The number of deaths in Turkey rose to ...

Rescue crews in Turkey and Syria searched for signs of life in freezing temperatures as survivors expressed frustration about rescue efforts. Updates.

The Syrian civil war has been going on for now a dozen years," Miliband told ABC, adding, "The world has moved on. ["There are many stories of people surviving well past the seven-day mark," Lee added. Murathan Adil was able to retrieve the device, belonging to a woman who gave her name as Mama Busra, but the battery was dead. He warned Syrians are in "grave danger of a secondary crisis" because aid is largely blocked across the Turkey-Syria border, and only one humanitarian crossing point is open. There were so few rescue teams that they could only intervene in places they were sure there were people alive," she said. But, frankly, that’s an indirect route and it’s caught up in politics," he told the outlet. "On the Syrian side of the border, it’s people who’ve frankly been abandoned over the last 10 years." Miliband called on the U.N. You’ve got a massive aid effort underway," David Miliband, president and CEO of the organization, told ABC. Refugee Agency said, and the number of fatalities in both countries continues to rise. ►Two women, one of them pregnant, were rescued more than 155 hours after the first quake, according to broadcast reports in Turkey. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said they were Burak and Kimberly Firik and their sons, ages 1 and 2.

A 7.8-magnitude quake erased thousands of buildings across 10 Turkish cities, devastating entire villages across the border in northern Syria as well. The death ...

As a Syrian displaced by the war as a teenager, he empathises with what people in his adopted home are feeling these days. His wife decided to spend her birthday, which occurred on Sunday, helping those in need. I started a couple of fires as we all stood together, waiting for the ground to stop shaking.” “It’s our moral duty to offer anything we can to support each other.” “I immediately came to my bar as soon as I saw all those people in the street looking for a safe ground-floor place,” says Ferdi Haydargil, 44, as he serves some hot cups of tea. “If we didn’t die in the quake, we might die of hunger or cold,” says Ahmet, 64, who preferred not to share his last name, as he picked up a pot of hot noodles from the restaurant.

Turkey's earthquake disaster looks set to cost the country's economy $84bn and cause the nation a death toll in excess of 72000, according to ...

It is [expected](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2022/October/weo-report?c=186,&s=NGDPD,&sy=2011&ey=2027&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1) to report a figure of around $800-850bn for 2023. [reported](https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Quarterly-Gross-Domestic-Product-Quarter-III:-July---September,-2022-45551&dil=2) GDP of around $800bn for 2021. Turkonfed expects Turkey’s budget deficit will rise to 5.4% of GDP. A loss of around $7bn is consequently expected, representing a 3% share of Turkey’s overall exports of $254bn in 2022. - Hatay road For what they're worth, the figures on the consequences of last week’s disaster come via comparisons with the August 17 quake. So much enthusiasm for highly dubious figures that make it on to paper and into headlines, perhaps not enough attention to the real costs, the realities people face, out there. - Gaziantep road - Hatay – Reyhanli road By the evening of February 12, 29,605 earthquake deaths had been recorded in southern Turkey and 3,574 in northern Syria. They will be recorded as “missing.” Unregistered migrants in the region are an even more complicated case. Experts say the survival rate of people trapped after an earthquake is 74% within 24 hours but just 6% by the fifth day.

Situation Report in English on Türkiye and 1 other country about Food and Nutrition, Health, Earthquake, Flood and more; published on 12 Feb 2023 by IBC.

Likewise in war-torn Northwest Syria the UN says up to 5.3 million people are homeless and nearly 900,000 people are in urgent need of hot food in both Türkiye and Syria. Due to the damaged crossing, access was delayed in providing cross-border aid in the first days of the emergency. Just 5% of the impacted sites and towns in opposition-controlled areas of Northwest Syria are being covered by search-and-rescue operations, according to the UN. Ninety percent of the population in Northwest Syria already depended on humanitarianKarahmanmaras, Adiyaman, and Malatya. Teams and local governance have announced the cease of search and rescue in Kilis, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, and in Northwest Syria. According to Türkiye’s Health, Emergency and Coordination Center (SAKOM) 29,605 people lost their lives in Türkiye, while Salvation Government authority of Syria confirmed 4,574 dead, including 3,160 in the Northwest.

Boncuk directed his anger at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially because she seemed so close to rescue but no one came. Her remains were finally removed ...

"People in the affected areas are counting on us," she said in a statement. He had pulled the bodies of his aunt and her husband from beneath the rubble hours after the quake. Abdel-Haseeb Abdel-Raheem sifted through the rubble of his aunt's destroyed four-story building in the town of Atareb in opposition-run northern Aleppo. This is the time to unite behind the common effort to support the Syrian people," said Geir Pedersen, the U.N. aid sent from Turkey to Syria is only authorized to enter via the Bab al-Hawa crossing, and logistics were complicated by pressure on the roads, many of them destroyed by the quake. While technically, international aid can also be sent from Syrian government-held areas to rebel-held areas in the northwest, that route brings its own set of hurdles and was at best a trickle. Two German aid groups and the Austrian Armed Forces temporarily interrupted their rescue work in the Hatay region citing fears for the safety of their staff. We're even checking the ones that are torn to pieces," she said of herself and other grief-stricken relatives. Dozens of newly displaced families gathered for hot meals from local volunteers and the local opposition-run government. He said the odds of survival for people trapped in wreckage fall dramatically after five days, and is near zero after nine days, although there have been exceptions. Rescuers pulled a 40-year-old woman from the wreckage of a 5-story building in the town of Islahiye, in Gaziantep province Monday. They said hundreds were still inside but complained the effort to free them had been slow and not serious.

Rescuers in southern Turkey pulled a woman from the rubble of a building Monday, more than a week after a series of powerful earthquakes struck the region.

Prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence of the materials that were used in their construction. “We have heard the calls from UN leadership that the Security Council needs to authorize two additional crossings to help deliver lifesaving aid to people in the northwest of Syria. Two contractors reportedly attempting to leave the country for Georgia were detained by authorities Sunday at Istanbul Airport. Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has vowed to punish anyone responsible for the collapse of thousands of buildings. Ambassador to the U.N. Getting aid into earthquake-hit parts of Syria has been a bigger challenge, with outside deliveries restricted to a single crossing at the Turkey-Syria border.

Mother, 2 children rescued from under rubble 175 hours after quakes hit Türkiye - Anadolu Agency.

A woman was rescued from under the rubble 175 hours after the earthquakes in Hatay province. [Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. A man named Bunyamin Idaci was also rescued from the rubble 177 hours after the quakes in Adiyaman province.

Time is running out fast for those trapped in the rubble after last Monday's earthquake that hit Türkiye and Syria while crews rescue more people...

[Tapad](https://www.tapad.com/privacy) [Smart](https://smartadserver.com/corporate-privacy-policy/) [Simpli.fi](https://www.simpli.fi/site-privacy-policy2/) [Simpli.fi](https://simpli.fi/site-privacy-policy/) [Openx](https://www.openx.com/legal/privacy-policy/) [Xaxis](https://www.xaxis.com/privacy-notice/) [Moat Analytics](https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/services-privacy-policy.html) [Oracle](https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/index.html) [ID5](https://www.id5.io/privacy) [Google](https://policies.google.com/privacy) [Criteo](https://www.criteo.com/privacy/corporate-privacy-policy/) [Beeswax](https://www.beeswax.com/cookies/) [Oracle](https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/addthis-privacy-policy.html)

Turkey has a small evangelical Christian minority. There are a few small congregations in the region where the earthquakes struck. Unfortunately, these ...

In one instance, a pastor and his wife—who are first-generation believers—already have plans to provide group counseling for the congregations in the region. And you can pray for people to receive what they need most—the hope of life through Christ. The way to help is to pray. One Christian who’s been driving into the affected areas multiple times a day encourages believers to “give water in Jesus’s name, pray in Jesus’s name, drive in supplies in Jesus’s name, and proclaim God’s love in Jesus’s name.” Meanwhile, those who’ve lost their homes are traveling to safer parts of the country to seek shelter. Sadly, in the coming weeks and months, there will likely be all kinds of finger pointing that fuels mistrust. But there’s also the greater tragedy: most of these thousands who have died weren’t prepared to meet their Creator and Judge. Those who themselves are tired, weak, and struggling to survive are trying to help others in their time of need. There were also major earthquakes in the eastern part of Turkey in 2011 (Van) and 2020 (Elazığ). Many are opening their homes for folks to stay with them. There are a few small congregations in the region where the earthquakes struck. Turkey lies on one of the most active fault lines in the world.

The institute explained that it follows the activity of any earthquakes accurately through Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN), where the preliminary data ...

Last Monday's twin quakes, centered in Kahramanmaras, killed thousands, impacted more than 13M people across 10 provinces - Anadolu Agency.

[Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Under the directives of President Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazouani, a Mauritanian aid plane on Sunday flew to Türkiye to contribute to the relief for earthquake victims, according to the Mauritanian News Agency. The Bridges of Good campaign in the UAE also announced the collection of more than 30,000 food parcels and large quantities of winter clothes, blankets, and humanitarian needs, for the benefit of those affected by the earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye, according to the same source. Pledging to provide necessary support and aid to Türkiye in the wake of the temblors, Al Nahyan also expressed his "sincere" condolences and sympathy to those affected by the earthquakes. The Qatar Fund for Development on Sunday announced supporting the ongoing operations of the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets) in order to rescue the earthquake victims in Syria. Turkish Airlines announced that on Sunday it had transported 46 tons of Qatari humanitarian aid to Adana to be distributed to the earthquake victims in southern Türkiye.

A massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami, which killed more than 230000 people throughout the region, ...

Rescuers pulled more survivors from the rubble as Turkey sought to maintain order across the disaster zone, concerns over looting grew and the government ...

The European Union's envoy to Syria on Sunday urged authorities in Damascus to "engage in good faith" with aid workers. "We cannot intervene much, as most of the looters carry knives." He has It was the deadliest quake in Turkey since 1939. "They rightly feel abandoned," Griffiths said, adding that he was focused on addressing that swiftly. [looters](/world/middle-east/looting-hygiene-worries-add-rescuers-burden-turkey-2023-02-11/) in the city of Antakya.

Rescuers have continued to pull out more survivors from the rubble in Turkey and Syria as the death toll from last week's earthquakes topped 33,000.

Nearly 900,000 people are in urgent need of hot food in Turkey and Syria. The death toll in Syria has not been updated for two days. “People in the affected areas are counting on us.” “It’s time to move with urgency and purpose.” “I gave her water to drink, I cleared her face of rubble. For hours, Boncuk frantically searched for someone in the devastated city of Antakya to help him free her, reported The Associated Press news agency. Her remains were finally removed Sunday, nearly a week after the building collapsed. “For the first few days, everybody looted supermarkets because they needed to. “Police and soldiers who live here went through the same things as we did. Business owners in a central district of Turkey’s Antakya city have emptied their shops to prevent their merchandise from being stolen by looters, according to the Reuters news agency. The market across the street, shoe stores … [@RTErdogan](https://twitter.com/RTErdogan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)، واطلعنا في هذه الزيارة على آخر تداعيات كارثة الزلزال المدمر الذي ضرب تركيا وسوريا، ونؤكد على دعمنا وتضامننا مع الأشقاء، وعلى المساهمة في الجهود المبذولة للتخفيف من هذه الكارثة.

Video shows Miray being rescued from under a Turkish building a week after a huge earthquake.

Local media reported teams on the ground were hoping to find her older sister. In the city of Kahramanmaras, rescue workers had made contact with a grandmother, mother and baby - all stuck, but alive - and were working to reach them. But hopes of finding people alive are dwindling and there is a sense that the rescue mission will soon end. Miray - the young girl rescued on Monday in the city of Adiyaman - was attached to a stretcher and carried away by rescue workers. The death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria is expected to rise dramatically, with the United Nations' humanitarian chief warning it could double. A young girl has been saved from the rubble of a block of flats in southern Turkey, more than a week after the devastating earthquake struck.

The United Nations has said that the death toll from last week's earthquakes in northwest Syria and southern Turkiye is likely to be over 56,000.

Turkiye is thought to be switching operations from rescue to recovery. Seven days on, hopes are fading that anyone will be pulled out of the rubble alive. READ:

Donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee Turkey-Syria earthquake appeal. The UK government matched, pound-for-pound, £5 million of public donations to this ...

If you wish to donate goods, check with charities and community groups. One of the best ways to help is by donating cash through trusted charities and aid organisations, rather than donating goods. Charities with experience of responding to disasters are best placed to reach victims on the ground.

Situation Report in English on Syrian Arab Republic and 1 other country about Coordination, Education, Earthquake, Flood and more; published on 12 Feb 2023 ...

[tweeted out](https://twitter.com/UNReliefChief/status/1624701773557469184): “We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria. He also met with staff of the UN Monitoring Mechanism and the Logistics Cluster in charge of managing the Hub, many of whom were in Hatay, the most affected Türkish province, on the day of the earthquakes. A second convoy of 14 IOM trucks crossed on 10 February, followed by a third convoy the next day comprised of 22 trucks loaded with relief items from four UN agencies. The impacts of the earthquakes only exacerbate their needs during a cholera outbreak and at a time when rain, snow and cold temperatures are common. Griffiths also visited the UN Transshipment Hub, this morning in Hatay, where he witnessed the transshipment and monitoring of 10 trucks loaded with aid provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) prior to setting off to Syria. Since 2014, the beginning of the cross-border operation, the UN has sent more than 55,000 trucks loaded with aid to north-west Syria.

GAZIANTEP, Turkey—Turkish authorities widened a crackdown on those allegedly involved in shoddy construction practices and looting in cities across southern ...

The child, named Miray, who was found in Adıyaman, was carried away by rescue workers on a stretcher, video from the scene showed. Government officials said the ...

As he was pulled out into the open air, cheers broke out. The child, named Miray, who was found in Adıyaman, was carried away by rescue workers on a stretcher, video from the scene showed. "Don't stop until you save the last life!"

ISTANBUL — As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan struggles to defend his response to last Monday's devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, videos from a ...

The group said the practice is used "for the sake of political gain," and must be stopped. We need to learn to live with earthquakes and take measures accordingly." They included more than 40,000 amnesty certificates in the hard-hit Gaziantep province, the official said. It said: "Buildings kill, not earthquakes. [acknowledged some initial problems](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/09/1155647266/turkey-earthquake-erdogan-government-response-criticism) with the country's response to the earthquake, but he has said no government could be ready for a disaster of this magnitude. [Duvar](https://www.duvarenglish.com/2019-video-of-erdogan-praising-zoning-amnesty-in-quake-hit-province-goes-viral-video-61831) and [Diken](https://www.diken.com.tr/erdogan-dort-yil-once-hatayda-imar-affiyla-ovunmustu/), and have circulated widely.

More than 450 years ago, an earthquake devastated China. The Shaanxi earthquake killed approximately 830,000 people on Jan. 23, 1556. Historical records show ...

According to the United Nations, approximately 220,000 people were killed in the quake. According to the United Nations, more than 225,000 people were killed in 14 countries. According to the U.S. The official death toll was 242,000. The earthquake occurred before the Richter scale was developed. In addition, the U.N. Historical records show that the earthquake was brief but powerful enough to change the landscape. The Shaanxi earthquake killed approximately 830,000 people on Jan. Low-lying areas were decimated as waves, some measuring over 100 ft. Earthquakes happen daily across the world. Some earthquakes are never felt and others have devastating and deadly consequences. When the shaking and tsunamis subside, the coastline can look a bit different.

Situation Report in English on Syrian Arab Republic and 1 other country about Coordination, Education, Earthquake, Flood and more; published on 13 Feb 2023 ...

The UN continues to scale up its cross-border aid operation, which resumed on 9 February after a three-day temporary interruption by the earthquakes. People in north-west Syria continue to be trapped under the rubble, a week since the earthquakes struck southern Türkiye on 6 February causing damages and casualties in both countries. In the north-west alone, 4.1 million people depend on humanitarian assistance.

Scientists say the megalopolis of 16 million people should get ready now for the inevitability of a powerful quake.

“[Preparing for] earthquakes should be the top project in both Istanbul and Turkey. “Therefore we should be proactive and get prepared before earthquakes.” But they also can be affected by quakes far away – such as in other regions – through surface waves because of their height,” said Ersoy. We saw this in the Kocaeli and Duzce “We know how much the North Anatolian Fault line moves every year through research. Many victims are still trapped under collapsed buildings across the region. Ersoy said corruption is high in the construction sector in Turkey, “and therefore there were abuses” in some of the building inspections. [earthquakes in 1999,](/news/2023/2/8/infographic-how-big-were-the-earthquakes-in-turkey-syria) as well as in other ones in the region in the past.” [severe seismic activity](/news/2023/2/6/why-have-the-turkey-syria-earthquakes-been-so) affecting Istanbul and the rest of the country should be at the top of the agenda for authorities. Huseyin Alan, chairman of the Chamber of Geological Engineers, agreed: “A magnitude 7.0 or higher earthquake is expected in Istanbul according to the data we have.” [tens of thousands of people](/news/liveblog/2023/2/13/turkey-syria-earthquake-live-news-us-urges-un-vote-on-aid-access) in the country’s southeast a week ago. [earthquakes](/news/liveblog/2023/2/13/turkey-syria-earthquake-live-news-us-urges-un-vote-on-aid-access) – centred in the city of Kahramanmaras – that happened only hours apart on February 6.

Over the weekend, more than a week after the temblors, emergency workers rescued a girl and a woman in Hatay.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of the U.S. "People in the affected areas are counting on us. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Officials have said this is the worst natural disaster to hit the region in a century. Air Force had delivered more than 5,700 tons of life-saving equipment and disaster aid, the U.S. So far, the U.S. A woman, Naide Umay, was also rescued from the rubble nearby after almost 175 hours, according to a video by Reuters. "It's same like in Ukraine because you have destroyed buildings, so many bodies. Local rescue workers in Turkey have been joined by dozens of international teams. Turkey's disaster agency said Monday that more than 31,500 had been recorded killed in that country. "Crazy fate really," he said.

Situation Report in English on Syrian Arab Republic and 1 other country about Food and Nutrition, Health, Earthquake, Epidemic and more; published on 13 Feb ...

• We are partnering with local organizations in Turkey to provide essential food and non-food items, including winter clothes and shoes, blankets, towels and diapers to displaced people in Hatay province. • We are operating two mobile medical units in Aleppo governorate and sending an additional three MMUs to provide primary health, trauma, and sexual and reproductive health services to thousands of patients per week. • More than 36,000 are reported dead, with many more thousands injured; 31,643 deaths have been reported in Turkey, and 4,574 in Syria.

Low-income countries often lack the resources to prepare and respond to disasters. Here's why the "disaster divide" leads to such high death tolls.

The real challenge when responding to disaster is finding support once immediate rescue efforts are completed, said Art delaCruz, the CEO of [Team Rubicon](https://teamrubiconusa.org/), an international NGO that specializes in disaster response. [more than 6,000 buildings](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/9/why-did-so-many-buildings-collapse-in-turkey) to collapse (About [4,000 buildings](https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/12/3337/2012/nhess-12-3337-2012.pdf) were seriously damaged or collapsed in the 2011 quake). Syria was already facing life-threatening conditions prior to the quake, with the UN Security Council stating in January that [humanitarian needs in Syria reached their “highest levels” since the war began](https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/01/1132282) in 2011. Many of the resulting deaths from Haiti’s 2010 earthquake were attributed to the catastrophic collapse of buildings which [did not use reinforced concrete](https://www.npr.org/2010/01/14/122547242/haitis-buildings-werent-fit-to-withstand-quakes) and were not designed for the lateral motion caused by earthquakes. In the dozen years since that disaster, Turkey, like most countries, [updated its seismic regulations](https://www.preventionweb.net/news/turkiye-building-resilience-against-earthquakes) and sought to improve its construction practices, but it faced logistical issues in doing so, Di Sarno said. And in Turkey, a primary port in the southern part of the country [suspended operations](https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/relief-efforts-in-turkey-syria-face-logistical-hurdles-11675813221) the day after the earthquake due to a quake-related fire. In 1960, the [Valdivia earthquake](https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/valdivia-earthquake-strikes-chile) in Chile killed thousands, left 2 million people homeless, and caused $550 million in damages at the time — in today’s dollars, that’s $5.4 billion. [90 percent of disaster deaths](https://www.voanews.com/a/un-says-most-deaths-from-natural-disasters-occur-in-poor-countries/3548871.html) between 1996 and 2015 occurred in low and middle-income nations, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction found. But while last week’s earthquake was a [7.8-magnitude quake](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/7/more-than-100-earthquakes-were-recorded-across-turin-the-past-day), and had an unusually strong 7.5-magnitude aftershock, the reason this earthquake is so deadly has less to do with its power, and more to do with the preexisting circumstances of the affected communities and the lack of preparation for disaster. Yet, Chile saw a much smaller death toll at [500 deaths](http://itic.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1667&catid=1444&Itemid=1444#:~:text=The%20earthquake%20and%20tsunami%20caused,Fernandez%20Archipelago%2C%20and%20Isla%20Mocha.) and had [relatively little structural damage](http://itic.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1667&catid=1444&Itemid=1444#:~:text=The%20earthquake%20and%20tsunami%20caused,Fernandez%20Archipelago%2C%20and%20Isla%20Mocha.). Wealthier nations that are able to upgrade older buildings, build new quake-resistant infrastructure, and invest in training and resources for their emergency response teams are [likely to fare better](https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/economic-recovery-after-natural-disasters) during earthquakes than less wealthy countries. “It was like the apocalypse,” Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a resident of Atareb, Syria, [told Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/major-earthquake-strikes-turkey-syria-about-200-dead-many-trapped-2023-02-06/).

A woman was rescued from under the rubble 175 hours after the earthquakes in Hatay province. Naime Umay was saved by firefighters dispatched to the region by ...

A woman was rescued from under the rubble 175 hours after the earthquakes in Hatay province. [Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Hatice Akan, 39, was referred to medical teams.

Hannah Ritchie is deputy editor and lead researcher at Our World in Data. Though it might take weeks or months to confirm the death toll across Turkey and ...

The government [failed to enforce](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214509514000321) its own building regulations, and even [offered amnesties](https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/turkeys-lax-policing-building-codes-flagged-quake-97027265), legal exemptions from the rules — for a fee. In 1999, a [7.6-magnitude event](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4%B0zmit_earthquake) resulted in about 18,000 deaths. [no one dies](https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/natural-disasters?facet=none&Disaster+Type=Earthquakes&Impact=Deaths&Timespan=Annual&Per+capita=false&country=~JPN). [invested](https://www.preventionweb.net/files/workspace/7935_casestudy10.pdf) [heavily ](https://www.preventionweb.net/files/workspace/7935_casestudy10.pdf)in research into seismic designs, and developed strict building regulations. While the government offered some financial support for old buildings to be reinforced or rebuilt, this was optional, and many businesses and private homeowners [turned down the offer](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/2/9/why-did-so-many-buildings-collapse-in-turkey). [the 1939 event](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Erzincan_earthquake) that killed about 33,000 people. [an 8.3-magnitude earthquake](https://www.britishpathe.com/video/earthquake-in-chile) resulted in 28,000 deaths. [visual evidence](https://twitter.com/ragipsoylu/status/1622572295628759040?s=46&t=W8yVXhKaqhd2yLr6fyBiug) of new buildings — built within the past few years — pancaked. [Ring of Fire](https://www.britannica.com/place/Ring-of-Fire) — an arc of faults and volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean. Incredibly, these now [cause few deaths](https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/natural-disasters?facet=none&Disaster+Type=Earthquakes&Impact=Deaths&Timespan=Annual&Per+capita=false&country=~CHL) — if any. Still, the nation continued to learn from the failure of some buildings: [It updated building codes ](https://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/WCEE2012_4480.pdf)to cover the structural weaknesses that engineers identified in the aftermath. Events of 8.0-magnitude or worse [come to the region](https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=-81.51827,-381.09375&extent=83.67694,288.28125&range=search&listOnlyShown=true&baseLayer=terrain&timeZone=utc&search=%7B%22name%22:%22Search%20Results%22,%22params%22:%7B%22starttime%22:%221900-01-01%2000:00:00%22,%22minmagnitude%22:8,%22orderby%22:%22time%22%7D%7D) every few years yet take [only a handful of lives](https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/natural-disasters?facet=none&Disaster+Type=Earthquakes&Impact=Deaths&Timespan=Annual&Per+capita=false&country=~CHL).

Death toll from quakes tops 36000; Syria's Assad agrees to open two new crossings from Turkey for humanitarian aid.

Situation Report in English on Türkiye and 1 other country about Food and Nutrition, Health, Earthquake, Flood and more; published on 13 Feb 2023 by IBC.

There were big developmentsin Northwest Syria today as Reuters reported that after meeting with the UN aid chief, the President of Syria has agreed to let the United Nations deliver aid to Syria through two more border crossings from Türkiye for three months, allowing for large and much needed scale-up of earthquake relief efforts in the hard-hit Northwest. IBC staff in Northwest Syria have been traveling from A’zaz to Gaziantep, Kilis, and other locations in development of community center tents where multiple needs have already begun to be met through food, blankets, and basic needs distributions with partners. Many people are still on the streets and need basic needs support especially winter items and some form of shelter to guard from the cold winter air especially in Hatay, which was completely flattened. However, with over 238,000 search and rescue teams still on the ground including some 8,000 personnel from other countries, the full scale of the disaster will need many further assessments. AFAD has evacuated 158,165 survivors so far from the 10-city disaster zone under state of emergency in southern Türkiye and over 1,000 Syrian nationals who lost their lives in Türkiye have returned to Northwest Syria for burial. The back-to-back quakes which spread across a 100-kilometer radius just hours apart have affected some 20 million people in the region including 7.2 million (2 million severely) in already war-torn Northwest Syria, and 13.5 million in Türkiye.

Nebraskans looking to support those affected by the Feb. 6 earthquakes near the Turkish-Syrian border have a variety of organizations to which they can ...

[Catholic Relief Services](https://www.crs.org/) or the [Catholic Near East Welfare Association](https://cnewa.org/work/emergency-syria/). Crews have been working to recover those trapped under the rubble, but efforts are beginning to shift from rescue to clean-up and supporting survivors. Lutheran Family Services suggests donating to [Church World Service](https://cwsglobal.org/), and the Islamic Foundation of Lincoln says to contribute to the [White Helmets](https://www.whitehelmets.org/en/), [Syrian-American Medical Society](https://www.sams-usa.net/) or [Islamic Relief USA](https://irusa.org/). “We want to make sure that those that want to make a difference, those that want to help, have the ability to get those resources into direct service providers’ hands as efficiently and as quickly as possible,” he said. [Back to Discover](#) [Watch](/en/watch/) [On Demand](/en/watch/on-demand/) [Back to Discover](#) [Listen](/en/listen/) [On Demand](/en/listen/listen-on-demand/) [Back to Discover](#) [News](/en/news/) The death toll has climbed to over 33,000 in the wake of the earthquakes and their powerful aftershocks.

And on global warming, the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report for 2023 released last month said “climate and environmental risks are the core focus of ...

But it is possible to start taking steps – now – to minimise the threats from the many crises facing us, both acute and chronic. The country, which is not in a position to invest in preparedness, had to receive more than $8 billion in support from donors. Other countries have also embraced the need to plan decades ahead. Other countries that are vulnerable to such disasters could need much more in the future. But what is the cost of failing to prepare? But when it comes to actually developing and adopting preparedness strategies, the challenges are many.